Shenguai Fiction (“Tales of Gods and Strange Beings”) is a genre of classical Chinese fiction named for its focus on supernatural, divine, and monstrous themes. It is also commonly referred to as “shenmo xiaoshuo” (“gods-and-demons fiction”).
A man who has not uprooted his hankering for fame and fortune, even if he disdains enormous wealth and delights in plain living, will in the end descend to the level of the vulgar world.
A scholar named Li Boyan, from Xishui, Shandong, was a straightforward, upright and brave man. Suddenly he collapsed with some kind of acute illness.